{"id":68298,"date":"2025-05-21T19:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T19:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/68298\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T19:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T19:23:09","slug":"why-the-falcons-rookies-have-coaches-excited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/68298\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Falcons\u2019 rookies have coaches excited"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-text \" data-index=\"6\">The Falcons used two first-round picks in the 2024 NFL draft on edge rushers, taking Georgia\u2019s Jalon Walker with their eighth-overall pick and traded back into the first round to draft Tennessee edge rusher James Pearce Jr. at No. 26.<\/p>\n<p>Explore<a class=\"headline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/sports\/atlanta-falcons\/how-the-falcons-new-pieces-fit-the-defense-this-season\/GJ3BUDVZQVARNOE6VLSX5MRTVI\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">How the Falcons\u2019 new pieces fit the defense this season<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-text \" data-index=\"8\">The moves put the pieces in place for the Falcons to make their defensive line one of the strongest in the league, but it is up to Smith to put it all together. <\/p>\n<p class=\"story-text \" data-index=\"9\">\u201cYou\u2019ve got all these ingredients, and you\u2019re just trying to throw it in a pot of gumbo and mix it all up and hopefully get it to tasting good,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-text \" data-index=\"11\">Walker and Pearce Jr. are already making an impression on their coaches. The two participated in the Falcons\u2019 rookie minicamp in the beginning of May, where they showcased their competitive grit. The former SEC athletes challenged the Falcons\u2019 veterans, both on the field and in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-text \" data-index=\"13\">\u201cBuilding that competition within the room has been awesome,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s answering questions right \u2014 like who got the question right or wrong \u2014 who has the fastest get-off or things like that in practice right now, trying to create little competitive things. These guys all in a room, they\u2019re all competitive, so that\u2019s going to do nothing but make our team rise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Explore<a class=\"headline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/sports\/atlanta-falcons\/schedule-makers-were-impressed-enough-to-give-falcons-five-prime-time-games\/K3S5FPR2H5GIBMTORD7MMSOOCA\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Why schedule-makers were impressed enough to give Falcons 5 prime-time games<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-text \" data-index=\"15\">The rookies\u2019 competitive drive stood out to Falcons personnel during the predraft process, which included watching tape from a lesser opponent, a competitive opponent and a rival opponent. <\/p>\n<p class=\"story-text \" data-index=\"16\">The goal was to see if the players rose to the occasion against higher competition \u2014 and Walker and Pearce Jr. passed with flying colors. <\/p>\n<p class=\"story-text \" data-index=\"17\">\u201cI\u2019ll always look at three things,\u201d assistant head coach Jerry Gray said. \u201cI\u2019ll look at a game early in the year. I look at a game late in the year, and then I look at their rival game. To me, the NFL every week is a rival game. If I can get a guy playing at his best against their rival game, you\u2019re pretty much going to do that when you get ready to go (to the NFL).\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-text \" data-index=\"18\">The Falcons will begin organized team activities May 27 before reporting for mandatory minicamp June 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Falcons used two first-round picks in the 2024 NFL draft on edge rushers, taking Georgia\u2019s Jalon Walker&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[2566,223,254,2554,224,7,6,3243],"class_list":{"0":"post-68298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-ajc-freelancer","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-atlantafalcons","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-rookie-minicamp"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114547458917293512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}